(Newser)
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Shawn Janzen was an artist—which is exactly why he'd love what his dad has done to his old beater car. For the last nine months, Jeff Janzen has been adding signatures to the 1994 Ford Crown Victoria, which he purchased in 2010. It's now decorated with more than 4,000 signatures of people from around the world, including Brazil, China, Japan, and Australia, though the car has never traveled more than 20 miles outside of Saskatoon, Canada, reports the CBC. The car has become a tribute to Janzen's son, Shawn, who died in a car accident in 2012. But it didn't start out that way. Jeff Janzen, who works at an auto shop, spent years working on the car to get it just how he liked it. When it was finished—with a fresh coat of black paint—he asked his coworkers to sign the hood, he explains in a YouTube video. Slowly, more signatures were added.

"Two to three months into the idea that's when it really hit me that if my son was alive, this is probably something he would've really enjoyed," Janzen says. "He was an artist and I never thought we were much alike in any way, but here I find some of my quirkiness is coming out later in life," he adds. "We're more alike than I thought." The car now has so many signatures—one of the larger ones reads "In memory of Shawn Janzen 'Poet'"—that they've migrated under the hood and onto the car's rims. Many messages are addressed to loved ones who've passed away. "Each one has a little bit of a story behind it," Janzen tells the CBC. "The guys I work with, every day they come out and want to see if I've added any signatures." When there's no blank space left, Janzen says he has another canvas, er, car waiting to be covered. (Does your car have a roof rack? Read this.)